Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Bulgaria has completed the rehabilitation of its key southern railway linking the cities of Plovdiv and Burgas at about 35% and  trains will be able to reach a speed of 160 km/h in the rehabilitated railway section. In May 2011, the Bulgarian government formally started the project for the rehabilitation of the southern rail highway between Plovdiv and Burgas, a major and long-anticipated infrastructure project, whose total length is 292 km. The modernization of the entire highway of almost 300 km is supposed to be completed by 2015. The progress of the project for the Plovdiv-Burgas railway was to presented by the Bulgarian Transport Ministry at a forum in Stara Zagora for projects funded under EU Operational Program Transport.

The first rehabilitated section of the rail highway is funded by EU Operational Program Transport and is expected to be launched by the end of 2012. The planned total investment in the Plovdiv-Burgas railway is over BGN 216 M; the rail line will be brought in line with all EU requirements – which few of the Bulgarian railway routes meet as of yet.

During the forum in Stara Zagora, officials from the Bulgarian Transport Ministry explained that Bulgaria's government has already contracted projects under OP Transport (for the 2007-2013 period) worth EUR 1.843 B, which is 92% of the total budget slated for Bulgaria. Of those, EUR 590 M have already been paid to contractors executing the respective projects.

At the forum were presented other major projects funded under OP Transport. To date, 16 km from the Svilengrad-Turkish border railway line have been built and it’s expected the project to be completed by the end of the year. Other large object that is expected to affect the economy of the area is "Maritza" motorway. From MTITC reported that a lot is filled to 11%, and Lot 2 - 27%. The project is expected to be completed in 2013.

Priorities for the next programming period were also discussed, as the possibility of Railways “Passenger Transport” to get European funding for the purchase of new trains. About 300 million are expected to be secured from European funding.

The forum was attended by experts from the National Company "Railway Infrastructure",  Road Infrastructure Agency and representatives from "Trace Group Hold" PLC and OCAC "DzhiSiEf - SC-13 - Trace Reylinfra Consortium”, the executive and local government members, media, etc.